Thousands of years ago, demons were invading the human world through a tower known as Temen-ni-Gru. Fortunately for humanity, a powerful devil named Sparda "woke up to justice" and kicked ass, sealing away Mundus, the demons' leader, and their world. It's never explained why he didn't just kill Mundus; the implication is that Mundus is literally unkillable. At any rate, he seals up his own power and takes human form for many more years, eventually fathering the halfbreedtwinsDante and Vergil with the human woman Eva. Then he dies mysteriously. And Eva gets killed in a demon attack, but not before Dante hides and Vergil escapes.

Fast forward ten years. Vergil has joined up with a strange, bald wizard named Arkham and raised Temen-ni-Gru again in the hopes of gaining more power. It's Dante's job to go in and kick ass, which he does. This is the plot of Devil May Cry 3. Arkham dies, Vergil falls into the depths of the demon world and Dante, at the suggestion of his sometimes-ally, the huntress Lady, names his demon-hunting business Devil May Cry.

Some time later, in the first Devil May Cry, Trish, a demon who looks like Dante's mother, bursts into his shop and "invites" him to Mallet Island to prevent Mundus from returning. He accepts, kicks ass, and seals Mundus away again, although he still doesn't succeed in killing Mundus. Trish becomes Dante's sidekick.

Some more time passes and the focus of Devil May Cry 4 shifts to newcomer Nero, part of a Sparda-worshiping cult known as the "Order of the Sword", whose party gets crashed by Dante. Demons attack the city soon afterward and Nero has to kick ass. In process, he discovers that his higher-ups are Not So Different from the demons he fights but The Reveal comes too late and Dante has to take action and kick ass too in order to rescue him. Nero then kicks more ass and saves his kidnapped girlfriend Kyrie from the bad guys. Cue True Love's Kiss (well, almost).

Even more time passes, and Dante has gone (mostly) silent. He's called to the remote Dumary Island to investigate a corporation seeking demonic power, which he does, and he kicks ass. Again. That's Devil May Cry 2.

Basically a series of American-style action films in video game form, these are among the best examples of Action Games in recent memory. Be warned, however, except for the second one, they're really, really hard. It's Real Difficulty, though.

Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Glaringly obvious in this series. Every time you purchase an item, the price goes up. Eventually, after five or so buys, the price will freeze. (This doesn't apply to limited-stock items like Blue or Purple Orbs.) The forces that are powering Dante and Nero up in exchange for demon blood know they can squeeze more out of him.

Adaptation Distillation: One can somewhat call it this way from a translation perspective in regards to the first two novels, as several lines present in the original Japanese aren't used in Tokyo Pop's versions.

Airborne Mook: Bat-form Plasmas in 1. Puias and Flambats in 2. Bloodgoyles in 3, Mephistos and Fausts in 4.

Air Guitar: One of Nero's more extreme taunts in 4 is to strum an air guitar in front of his enemies. And if you stop and listen, it's actually making real music.

All Swords Are the Same: In 2, you get a normal sword, a BFS and a fencing sword, but only the look and damage differs, the combos are exactly the same. That's one of the reasons this episode is considered the black sheep of the series.

American Kirby Is Hardcore: For some reason, the Tokyo Pop translation of the manga has Dante drinking beer instead of tomato juice. Apparently a fondness for tomato juice is too quirky a trait for Dante to have.

And Your Reward Is Clothes: In 3, the player is rewarded for completing the game with...less clothes. The option to play Dante shirtless for the whole game is unlocked. (Although technically he's not wearing a shirt in his standard outfit, he's just also not wearing his longcoat.)

Anti-Frustration Features: The series invokes this in later games. In mission 15 of the second game, the enemies become weaker each time you are unable to beat them in 2 minutes. In the third game, dying a few times on normal mode unlocks easy mode; in the fourth, choosing "continue" a few times in a chapter automatically handicaps the enemy − which is actually frustrating since it's so subtle that until the score screen the game lets you foolishly believe you succeeded because you got better (see Easy Mode Mockery below).

Armed Legs: Dante in wields these with his Beowulf weapon in the 3. It returns in the form of Gilgamesh in 4.

Armor Is Useless: Neither Dante nor any of the playable characters in the franchise ever wear any kind of protective gear (except in the second game). The trope is averted by the playable characters because most of what they're dealing with literally would make armor irrelevant, and subverted by several enemies whose armor makes defeating them considerably more difficult.

Also averted in 4 with "Dreadnaught", the ultimate Royal Guard technique, which covers Dante with an impenetrable armor, making him effectively invincible for a short amount of time.

Artistic License Physics: While the series does its level best to ignore physics completely, it does at one point toss a lampshade on the fact that Dante is too cool for the laws of motion. The description of Spiral's "trick shot" ability states that Dante ricochets the bullet off multiple surfaces to increase its speed, meaning he knows a local supplier of non-conservation-of-energy bullets.

The first game also says that the Frost enemies are at below absolute zero temperature. This might be trying to imply that they're supernaturally cold, but it still sounds like a failure of logic, or at least physics.

Audible Sharpness: Dante and Vergil are particularly fond of this trope, the slightest movements of Rebellion and Yamato before the twins fight producing this high-pitched sound for dramatic effect.

Awesome but Impractical: Real Impact and Twister-Tempest most of the time in 3, some Buster moves while fighting crowds in 4.

Real Impact's position is somewhat reversed in 4 with the Distorted Real Impact; if timed properly, it becomes THE boss-killing move of the game.

Showdown in 4 is extremely efficient -- but has a short range, takes several seconds to charge and whiffs if the target moves away during charging, so you'd better know what you're doing when you use it.

Also, the Sparda sword back in 1. While a sword that can turn into a scythe is stupidly sweet, the lack of a Devil Trigger leaves you significantly better off using Alastor or Ifrit. At least, until the final battle, where it proves worthy of its name.

Sparda does the extra damage Alastor does during Devil Trigger; nothing to write home about at first, but as you ramp the difficulty up towards "Dante Must Die", actual Devil Trigger abilities become progressively more useless, and melee attacks become your primary source of damage.

Nevan in 3 sure is awesome, but ridiculously difficult to use, mainly because most of its attacks involve moving the left stick in a precise direction (not just forth or back as with other weapons). Since Dante's position constantly changes, that makes things quite tricky. It is also complex and rather unclear in terms of holding and releasing buttons.

Back Tracking: In 4--and how! Nearly every reviewer called it out. Basically, all Dante's part consists of doing everything Nero did in reverse order.

There was backtracking in the other installments as well (Mallet Island for 1, the Uroboros building in 2, and the Temen-ni-Gru's lower levels in 3), but those were the well-done "environment change" versions of the trope.

Barehanded Blade Block: Played completely straight by Jester in 3, and performed by both Dante and Vergil to each other simultaneously (leaving both with bleeding hands), also in 3. Agnus does it to Nero in 4, with his pinkies sticking out, at that.

Nero's arm makes invoking this trope routine for him, at least in cutscenes. The player can sometimes do it too, but you need to time it down to a few milliseconds.

To a degree, the Nightmare-Beta from 1. Charge it up, and let a huge volley of penetrating laser shots recoil around the room like crazy. (Does it count as Beam Spam if it's just the same beams over and over?)

Beat Them At Their Own Game: Inverted in the final fight of 3, where Vergil picks up Sparda's other broadsword to use against the one Dante inherited.

BFG: Kalina Ann, Spiral, the Grenade Launcher, the Stinger, and several Pandora forms.

BFS: All the starter weapons of the sword-wielding major characters, with specific examples below.

Nero DT spirit's Yamato.

The standard swords of Nero and Dante are around their own height in length.

Among the enemies, we have Nelo Angelo's sword, Berial's warblade and Bolverk's spear. Yes, spear. It despite being a blade on a stick, it has a very long, large blade. Oh, and Dante's Vendetta and Merciless swords from 2.

Some of them ARE huge swords.

Big Bad: Mundus, being King of Hell, is indubitably the Biggest Bad of all. However, the other titles have featured human (or demihuman) villains. Lampshaded in the second novel, where Chen declares that "I should announce my presence like the big bad boss that I am!"

Big Brother Mentor: Dante starts to become one for Nero toward the end of 4, with hints that further adventures will make the relationship explicit.

Bifurcated Weapon: In 3, Dante wields Agni and Rudra, a pair of serrated scimitars (that are actually the heads and attached spines of a pair of demons) that he can combine into a Double Weapon for certain attacks.

Except for some of the demons in 3, which bleed sand. Justified, since it's properly stated that the Hell's demons (except Envy) are made of sand. Envy and Abysses bleed fluid and blood, respectively.

However, it's played mostly straight in the fourth installment. Only (half-)humans bleed red, organic demons have blue, green or orange blood.

The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: The series is a big offender of this. There may be one or two exceptions at best, but other than that, swords always land on the pointy end. And every time you disarm Agni and Rudra while fighting them, the blades will fall like this as well!

Blade Run: The Shadow enemies in the first game will sometimes attack by extending long spikes from their body, which then stay out for a few moments. While they're out, the player can stand on them, as seen here at around 1:50.

Nero does it literally on the sword that was originally attached to a statue of Sparda when he first battles Dante in the early cutscenes of the fourth game. Sadly, no gameplay usage.

Beryl from the second novel counts as another redhead, preceding Lucia chronologically-wise.

Blood Knight: Okay, technically it's his job, but Dante does seem to enjoy his work a little more than normal.

Dante: Well bring it on! I love this! This is what I live for! I'm absolutely crazy about it! *cue Cheshire Cat Grin*

Bloodless Carnage: Everybody of demonic origin has mad regen skills, though blood is seen in cutscenes.

Blood Magic: When you kill monsters, you collect their blood (which conveniently crystallizes into red orbs in contact with air) to upgrade your magic powers. Justified in that there is a bounty system in placed by some nebulous God of Time.

Boss Arena Idiocy: The battle with Nightmare in 1. He first appears as a completely invulnerable pool of black goo which swallows Dante up if he touches it. Hitting the switches that surround the arena enough causes him to take on a more solid form which, while more dangerous, is also vulnerable after it attacks.

The enemy file justifies it by saying that since the Nightmare is a monstrous living machine, it needs to have a seal on its power to prevent itself from overloading, since it's already dangerously unstable. Striking the disc is sort of like removing its safety switches, both for itself and you.

Boss Arena Recovery: Berial, the first boss in 4, leaves behind health-restoring orbs when he smashes buildings. At least, until you get to the higher difficulties—-which turns him into a sort of "Wake-Up Call" Boss if you were still expecting them.

Bottomless Magazines: Dante never runs out of ammo. According to the first game's manual, one of his demonic powers creates it.

While Lady and Nero have shown impressive reloading skills, Lady plays this straight during mission 16 of 3 when Dante picks a fight with her. Nero subverts this in gameplay as he can shoot as long as he wants but if he stops (don't do anything else) Nero will finish with a quick reload.

Bragging Rights Reward: Completing the highest "Dante Must Die" difficulty in the first, third and fourth games unlocks a "Super Costume" for Dante or the other playable characters, which grants unlimited energy for the Devil Trigger Super Mode. In this case, the game is still hard, even for a maxed-out character.

Beating the last of 15 secret missions in the first game offers you a Bangle of Time. Equipping it changes Devil Trigger to stop time, though it doesn't work on bosses and it's obtained so late in the game you only really get to use it during New Game+.

Brother-Sister Incest: Nero and Kyrie, despite having been raised in close enough proximity for the Westermarck Effect to kick in. They're more of a Not Blood Siblings thing, but it's obvious the writers have no idea what it means to have a brother-sister relationship since infancy.

Dante catches one of Lady's bullets with his teeth and then spits it out.

Bullet Dancing: Inverted when Dante uses it against the villainous Jester in 3. Parodied when Jester starts doing the Charleston.

Bunny Ears Lawyer: Nero. He's a major Jerkass to just about everybody he knows, listens to his own theme song very loudly during church, and should by rights have been excommunicated long ago. He also happens to be incredibly good at his job. Weirdly, he seems to be kosher to the idea of God, as seen by his end-game speech, he's just not really fond of the church he freaking works for.

Button Mashing: 3 has "crazy combos" activated by button mashing during execution of certain moves. All of them are variations of "hit it two dozen times per second".

By the Power of Greyskull: Averted in3: Vergil's soundbite prior to DDT signifies the usage of a move, not the DT itself that can be done wordlessly, plus Dante and Playable Vergil don't say anything while DTing either.

Played straight with Vergil's pre-Sparda Trigger soundbite ("You're going down.", for those wondering) in Mission 20, in that he never DTs without saying it.

Cain and Abel: Dante chose to go with his human heritage, Vergil with his demonic, and the two never met peacefully again.

Calling Your Attacks: Averted in 1 and 2, where Dante only makes war cries. Subverted in 3: Ref Real Impact, where he shouts "Rising Dragon" and doesn't spare a coherent line for the real Rising Dragon. Played straight in a couple of cases in 4, but still, it's usually taunts and warcries.

However, while nobody usually calls the attack's actual name, both protagonists and some bosses always shout certain phrases before some attacks. Nevan is particularly guilty of this.

Camera Screw: The series frequently changes the camera angle mid-jump. The key to your survival is that the game doesn't realign your controls until you land, so you need not jerk the controller around.

The third fight with Griffon in 1 is nearly unwinnable on higher difficulties thanks to this.

The second game is particularly bad. You'll often find yourself shooting away at enemies the camera seems to have no intention of showing you.

Capcom Sequel Stagnation: Mostly averted gameplay-wise, each game improves it in its own way and has its own atmosphere. Story-wise however, we don't learn a whole lot between 1 and 4… and there is DMC3: Special Edition, which is the same game with a nerfed difficulty and a Vergil mode.

A more straight example would be the biplane encountered in the first mission of the first game (christened Carnival according to Viewtiful Joe). It is later used to make your escape from Mallet Island. Nobody knows how or why it was here to begin with but, who cares.

The bells you see strewn throughout Temen-ni-gru. They later are involved in the ritual used to open the gate to the underworld.

Chewing the Scenery: "I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with LIGHT! (light... light...)"

Clean Cut: Yamato, a katana apparently so sharp it can effortlessly cut through several feet of stone. From about half a mile away. Also used to separate dimensions. Also Rebellion, which is only slightly less impressive.

Combination Attack: Slightly subverted first with Dante and Trish; Dante merely draws on both his and her power to blow Mundus out of the water. Played straight with Dante and Vergil in 3, who hack away at Arkham, then repeat with each other's swords, and then blast the hell out of him with a single shot from Ebony & Ivory. Both overlap with Finishing Move.

The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Devil Triggered boss Vergil > Devil Triggered player Vergil. Boss Dante in 4 is infinitely superior to any version the player has ever had access to, if only because of computerized accuracy.

The final fight against Vergil, on the hardest mode, in 3. He spends more time in his Devil Trigger mode than out of it (where he heals, doesn't flinch, tends to disappear for extended periods of time while attacking you, and uses some harsh combos), and if you thought it was bad when the fight started, bear in mind that he starts using Devil Triggereven moreonce you knock him below half health.

Conservation of Ninjutsu: The fight against Arkham, in a uniquely straightforward example -- Dante fights him until he's down to half health. Then Vergil shows up, and suddenly you can't use the Devil Trigger or your style moves. After beating Arkham, Dante and Vergil fight each other, and can once again use their Devil Triggers and style attacks.

During that fight, the game creates Vergil using the basic mechanics of the Doppelganger style. Since the style requires Devil Trigger to create the Shadow, the player can't use it during the fight. However, there's still no in-game justification for it.

Continuing Is Painful: To an extent. The thing is, when you use an item, it's used for good: if you die, you will have to do the sequence (or the entire level) again without the items you already used, which may force you to go back to the loading screen. Then again, the game does all it can to discourage light use of items, so if a passage or boss is hard, a more clever method is to try and get as far as possible without using them at first.

Continuity Reboot: Word of God still states DMC is an origin story, not part of this trope. The difference in personality and appearance is supposed to be because whatever causes Dante to become his familiar Devil May Cry self is whatever transpires in this particular game.

During the recent live interview, the game was referred to as a "rebirth" of the series...so as to what exactly it is, no one knows.

Flip-Flop of God: Ninja Theory has called it an "origin story", a "reboot", and a "reimagining" at different times.

Ninja Theory have recently come forward and confirmed that it's not canon to the first four games.

Cutscene Incompetence: Even if you beat Vergil on top of that tower without getting hit once, the cutscene makes it look like you were losing the whole time, with Dante panting and barely keeping up while Vergil calmly deflects most of his attacks. Then Vergil stabs Dante through the guts with his own sword.

Even when you have Quicksilver and Doppelganger as styles, Dante doesn't use them aside from one cutscene each. He would have needed Quicksilver in Mission 13, when trying to shoot Jester, or when they had Arkham surrounded; he could have used Doppelganger in Mission 19 to double the damage he could have inflicted on Arkham's blob form, or Quicksilver to avoid that arm flying at him, or Quicksilver to catch Vergil from falling to his apparent death. He used Cerberus to catch a motorcycle, but he couldn't do that to catch his twin? (Though Vergil clearly didn't want to be saved.) It's like the game doesn't know what to do with this guy.

Dante never uses equipment other than the default Rebellion and Ebony and Ivory in cutscenes, save the ones in which they are acquired and the one example with Cerberus. Likewise Dante and Vergil never use Devil Trigger in cutscenes save the one where Dante acquires his.

Cutscene Power to the Max: Dante simply cannot die in cutscenes. At all. Although he does come across as careless and incompetent at times, see immediately above.

Also, the Yamato in 3 and 4. Cutscenes make it seem everything dies of being in the same room with it.

Dante's handguns seem to have the odd ability to be able to kill pretty much everything he shoots with them in one blast. Compare to gameplay, where your same guns deal slightly more damage than throwing a large pebble.

4 in particular may be the worst offender of this trope in video game history. While you can certainly pull of some decently badass looking moves in-game, the kind of stuff that both player characters, Dante especially, do in cutscenes is jaw-droppingly ridiculous. The zenith is after beating a rather difficult boss as Dante, that boss immediately resurrects... into at least 5 or 6 copies of himself. Dante than manages to obtain the Pandora, and proceeds to effortlessly wreck all 6 copies of the boss's shit with a lethal combination of Pandora's abilities. Try replicatingTHIS in-game. Granted, all of those functions are available, but are in no way that powerful, that easy to pull off (a couple even fall into Awesome but Impractical territory), that easy to control, or simply that flashy.

Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Switch between 1 and 3. Thankfully the latter lets you remap the controls to your liking. Better yet, try going from 3 back to 1. Thought you had it bad forwards? It gets worse.

Thankfully, the HD collection remaps the controls of 1 to make them similar to the other games.

Damsel in Distress: Most girls in this franchise are quite capable of taking care of themselves, but then the fourth installment gave us Kyrie, whose entire raison d'être is to be saved by Nero.

The second game has Lucia, who is perfectly capable in-game, but has to be rescued by Dante from explosions in cinematics twice. She also doesn't accomplish much without Dante, being captured by Arius and staying behind while he enters the portal to Hell. She does, however, kill Arius when he returns as a demon, so Lucia probably steers closer to Badass in Distress.

Death or Glory Attack: The Royal Release in 3 and 4. In a sneaky way, the Devil Trigger itself in 3. If simply used, it's a teeny burst that mildly inconveniences enemies. If charged up fully, with a maxed-out DT gauge, it will One-Hit Killevery minor enemy in the game. However, using it this way leaves you with only a few seconds of Devil Trigger time, so you better hope you got them all. In 4, Nero can also use his Devil Bringer to reverse some powerful enemy attacks instead of dodging them. For example, knocking back the combined sphere attack from a Bianco Angelo and Alto Angelos, throwing Credo's spear back or grabbing Sanctus while he is charging you.

Difficult but Awesome: Royal Guard. If you do manage to pull it off, though, it looks amazing. Using RG to cancel Spiral and Kalina Ann is also difficult but rewarding to master.

To elaborate, the style lets you completely nullify damage by pressing block at the right instant, just as an attack hits you. This also boosts style rating, devil trigger energy and lets you save power for monstrous counter-attacks, but you'll have to memorize enemy attack cues and patterns to get the timing right.

Doomed Hometown: Dante wrecks his shop with a sneeze in the second mission of 3 and it can't be accessed again for the rest of the game. Played for laughs (especially since the shop's been torn to hell by the previous mission and the sneeze is just the last straw).

Dual-Wielding: Lucia with all her weapons, Dante with Agni and Rudra, Vergil with Yamato and Force Edge. Nero sort of does this with Yamato and Red Queen for his moves Maximum Bet and Showdown, but only when Triggered.

Easier Than Easy: Heaven or Hell is really not as hard as it sounds. As long as you use your guns it pretty much becomes "Press X To Win mode".

Easter Egg: Did you know 3 has a two-player co-op mode, albeit under strict conditions? A second player can press Start on a spare controller whenever Dante uses the Doppelganger technique to control Dante's shadow. The same trick can also be used to control Vergil during the battle against Arkham.

Some of the extra costumes count as well. For example, beating the second game on Dante Must Die difficulty unlocks Dante's original outfit from 1, complete with the Force Edge in place of Rebellion and most of Dante's sound files are switched from Matthew Kaminsky to Drew Coombs, his original VA from the first game.

Easy Mode Mockery: In 1 and 3 you are offered the choice to switch to Easy Mode under certain conditions of poor play, getting a D rank in the first mission and dying three times in the first mission respectively. 4 pulls this off in a far more subtle way... Continuing a certain number of times within a mission automatically handicaps the enemy, something you're unaware of until you get a degraded rank at the end of the mission.

Elemental Powers: All over the place with the Devil Arms, ranging from fire, to ice, to thunder, to light. Also the demon themselves, which are often stated to use determinated elements in order to appear in a solid form.

Eleventh-Hour Superpower: The Sparda Devil Trigger in 1, which only works against Mundus and nowhere else. Without cheating of course. Also Yamato and Dark Slayer in 4, except they can be used elsewhere and aren't especially overpowered.

Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: It's hard to tell what those things Arkham summons are. They're a little like dolphins, except they're apparently trying to grin-and-tackle you to death.

Same thing can apply to the Cutlass enemies found in 4. They're invulnerable when they're swimming through the floor/walls/ceiling in the tunnels, and the only way to get them is when they're leaping to attack you or forcing them out via strong attacks like Stinger or Charge Shot.

Evil Hand: Devil Bringer, although how much control it's exerting over Nero is unclear. Possibly a subversion, since the hand itself doesn't seem to be "evil" per se, just demonic.

Expy: Nell in the first novel is an Eva Expy. She's so similar that Vergil uses her to recreate Eva's sacrifice and trigger Dante's memories. Then, the second novel featured a redhead human hunter with a big gun working with Dante to stop an evil businessman who wanted the power of a god, specifically Sparda. Then, 2 (which came later), had a redhead hunter working with Dante to stop an evil businessman who wanted the power of a god, and 3 had a human hunter with a big gun working with Dante to stop an evil man who wanted the power of Sparda.

Fan Service: The Powers That Be seem to have recognized their sizable female fanbase as of 3, as shirtless Dante being an unlockable most definitely qualifies. While all of the ladies' outfits spanning the series are fanservicey as hell, Gloria's...fighting style...in 4 really takes the cake. And that's not even mentioning that Lucifer acquisition scene with Dante.

Speaking of 3, the character artist specifically states in the Note of Naught artbook that coatless!Vergil "was designed to give our women users huge nosebleeds".

Nero firing Blue Rose with one hand -- the only time he uses both is when you're firing a Charge Shot. If the size of Blue Rose's caliber is of any indication in comparison to real life firearms in that same range, the closest possibly the Smith & Wesson Model 500 revolver, it would smash into a regular human's face if the other hand wasn't used to brace for recoil.

Flash Step: The various "Trick" techniques by Vergil and "Air Trick" by Dante after maxing Trickter Style. Vergil occasionally takes this to Teleport Spam levels in the second and third boss battles with him.

Nelo Angelo (being Vergil and all) has the same ability, but this is undermined both by the blue flames that signify his flight path as well as the fact that he rarely uses it to his advantage. Frosts, ice demons that appear in 1 and 4, possess a similar ability which involves the disassembly of their bodies at the molecular level, quickly moving across the room using the moisture in the air as a medium, and then reforming somewhere else.

Freeze-Frame Bonus: Those with a careful eye will be able to spot Dante perched casually atop one of the nearby buildings during Nero's opening fight with the Scarecrows -- slow-motion is all but required at first due to the fact that it only seen as the camera follows Nero's high-speed aerial acrobatics. Dante also shows up near the end of the prologue, just as Director Hideaki Itsuno's credit disappears.

The introductory cutscene to every mission in 3 incorporates the mission number somewhere, often very briefly such as the 9 on a fallen 9mm shell case or a 20 in the clouds above the level.

Gameplay and Story Segregation: a minor example in 3. During the ending cutscene, Dante gives Lady her rocket launcher back. But then we have playable credits, where--if Dante had the rocket launcher equipped during the Final Boss--he can still use it. Despite Lady visibly wielding it alongside him.

A bigger example in 4 is when you replay Dante's missions. He sets out to the Opera House to retrieve Yamato despite already wielding it.

Give Me a Sword: Subverted in 4, as Nero doesn't ask for Dante to give him the Yamato to fight with, but to let him keep it to fight with. Dante lets him have the sword permanently by end-game, turning it into It Was a Gift.

Dante does it towards the end of 1 when he stops fooling around with Mundus and getsreallypissed off.

A God Am I: Occurs twice--first with Arkham in 3, whose megalomania was so great that having his ass handed to him by bothDante and Vergil combined was not enough to shatter his delusion of invincibility, and second with Sanctus of the Order of the Sword, who sought to create an artificial God and unify with it to reign over a new utopia purged of chaos.

Good Hair, Evil Hair: Vergil's slicked-back 'do, complete with two cutscenes showing him slicking it back after it gets messed up.

Good Scars, Evil Scars: Lady has the scar over the bridge of her nose, while Arkham has the disfigured side of his face.

Goomba Springboard: A minigame was made out of this mechanic in 3. You can buy the ability to do this in 4.

Gosh Dang It to Heck: "Flock off, featherface!" It's also worth noting that later installments don't do this; 3, 4, and the anime in particular have their share of cursing. Nero even gets called out for using harsh language at one point.

The "Flock off, featherface!" line could have just been a pun. Griffon was a bird demon, after all...

Go Through Me: The details are vague, but it's implied by the manga and through Dante's dialogue as he cries over Trish's apparent death in 1 that Eva did this in order to allow a young Dante to hide when demons attacked their home.

Somewhat compensated, since the default power of enemies and bosses is that of the "Son Of Sparda" mode (AKA Bloody Palace difficulty), and by the time you get it you must have passed the game on "Dante Must Die" difficulty, which grants you infinite Devil Trigger gauge upon completion, making this mode a continuous Curb Stomp Battle. Of course, since the endless DT is a selectable before choosing the mission, and it is indeed broken, the game decreases your final mission score conveniently (the maximum score attainable to you while on infinite DT mode is "D"). Passing this mode without infinite DT, however, is much more of a challenge.

Hand Cannon: Ebony & Ivory are fitted with massive ported compensators that more than put them in this ballpark, while Blue Rose is a carbine-sized revolver.

Hero Insurance: Inverted in DmC: Devil May Cry. Dante here is outright accused of being a terrorist because nobody can see him battle the demons in Limbo, only his leaving behind a trail of destruction. Dante himself, helpfully, could care less what people call him.

Hyperspace Arsenal: Both played straight and subverted, especially within 3. While Vergil's sword(s) are always present, and Lady has a pistol, a machine-gun, a crossbow thingymajig, and even a rocket launcher all clearly visible on her body... we have Dante, who can carry three swords, giant three-sided nunchaku, a scythe-guitar, huge gauntlets and greaves, two pistols, a shotgun, a demonic laser gun, an anti-tank rifle, and a rocket launcher (Lady's, as mentioned)... on his back? Inside his coat? In his pants pockets? It's worth noting that Beowulf and Artemis will show on Dante's avatar at all times if he has them equipped, but supposedly he's got them on his person at all times. Where do they go?

Idle Animation: First game, Dante had a different animation for whatever firearm he had equipped. With Ebony and Ivory, he would twirl them and put them away, whereas when equipped with the shotgun, grenade launcher, or Nightmare-Beta, he would put one hand in his pocket while he would rest his weapon arm on his shoulder.

In 3, Dante would scratch his head in annoyance, cross his arms, and tap his foot impatiently.

In 4, Nero would inspect his arm. Dante actually has two animations: looking around with his hands on his hips, then stretching out an arm while still looking around. The other is a little funnier -- it looks like he might have dozed off standing up with his arms crossed.

In 1, Phantom meets his end this way. Griffon is also pinned to a sacrificial pentagram by a giant pointy rock.

There seems to be a Running Gag of Dante getting impaled at least once per game. In the first game it's Alastor, in the third Vergil stabs him twice, and in the fourth he gets impaled and pinned to a statue of Sparda in the game's opening.

Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Cutscene after Lady battle. Justified though in that she is a normal human that just got the tar beat out of her by Dante. Double vision, trembling, almost unresponding limbs, almost passing out from the damage, are clearly plausible justifications--and all happening at the same time...

From 4: Blue Rose is a two-barrel revolver, Red Queen is a petrol-powered BFS, Gilgamesh is literally organic metal that forms gauntlets and boots with spurs, Pandora's forms (other than suitcase) and Lucifer are just impossible to describe.

No nunchuks are as cool as large-size three-sided ones that can spout ice.

Improbable Aiming Skills: Amongst many examples that could be given, in 3, Dante both flips a billard table over and proceeds to shoot the white ball, initiating an aerial game of pool to take place which knocks out a couple of demons when the balls hit their heads, AND, at a later point, he also deflects bullets by shooting them out of their trajectory path.

Dante can block Lady's pistol shots by shooting them out of the air with E&I when you fight her in 3. Nero does the same to Dante in the tutorial for 4.

He later repeats the trick when getting Echidna's attention in 4, replacing the billiard balls with seeds.

Also in 4, shoving Yamato into the heart of the Savior by shooting it with 8 bullets that stack up one right behind the last.

Improbable Weapon User: Cerberus has an unusual configuration for a three-section nunchaku. Then there's Nevan, the scythe-equipped electric guitar...which sees more use in combat as a guitar than a scythe. (And shoots bats, sound waves and electricity.)

Ink Suit Actor: For the third game, an unknown stuntman named Reuben Langdon was brought in to do mocap for Dante. Whether they planned it that way or not, he's now Dante's official voice actor as well. Daniel Southworth as Vergil also in the third game and Johnny Yong Bosch as Nero in the fourth.

You can damage enemies when you activate the Devil Trigger (in 3, at least), but this is less of an instant death radius and more of an instant minor annoyance with very little knockback radius.

Instrument of Murder: Nevan from 3, a guitar that shoots lightning, controls bats, plays loud enough to kill demons, and turns into a scythe. No, we can't emphasize that enough.

Invisible to Normals: Although no one seems to care about Temen-ni-Gru, Dante runs a demon-hunting business.

Possibly not with Temen-ni-Gru. Poke around the urban areas wrecked by the tower and demons and you get Resident Evil-styled text descriptions telling you about how everyone around has been hideously killed by the demons in ways you shouldn't think about. There is, thus, no one around to notice immediately after the tower emerges, and one might hypothesize that the National Guard/JSDF is surrounding the base of it, unseen, by the end.

It Was a Gift: Yamato and Rebellion to Vergil and Dante, passed down by Sparda. Then it's Yamato to Dante to Nero, with Dante letting Nero keep the sword when Nero tries to return it to its "rightful" owner. Also the amulets to the twins from Eva.

Jumped At the Call: ... But only if it shows up in person. Dante picks up the phone, blows whoever is calling him off, hangs up, and then instantly goes to Temen-Ni-Gru when Arkham shows up in person. For all we know, that was Arkham himself calling on the phone.

If it was, he would have been on a mobile phone just outside the door, considering he walked in about five seconds after Dante put the phone down.

Large Ham: Dante to a T. Acts like a cocky sonofagun almost constantly during the story. Especially clear in the opening cutscenes of 3 and 4, where Dante isn't fighting so much as playing with his enemies.

Laser-Guided Amnesia: Dante in the first novel, verging on split personality syndrome. Justified because he's basically in deep denial: Vergil keeps trying to give obvious hints and Dante refuses to pick up on them until Vergil pulls all the stops by causing Nell to die the way Eva did.

Laser Hallway: Several in the middle chapters of 4. You will not like it.

Light Is Not Good: Mundus' appearance in 1, Beowulf and the Fallen from 3, and the Order of the Sword from 4.

Light Novel: Two novels with events that precede games 1 and 2 respectively (although the first novel got booted out of canon because of 3), while two more is actually a two-part novelization of 4.

Lighter and Softer: Not in terms of story or subject matter, but visually, part four features a much brighter color palette for its foes and environments than the third, which takes place almost exclusively in a gothic tower.

Locked Door: All over 1. Some simple puzzles in 3. By the way, don't go near the locked doors, they'll turn into a giant hand and grab your soul away from you.

Lost in Translation: Nelo Angelo is the single greatest cause of fan argument for this whole series. Among the reasons why that aren't spoilerriffic, his name is mistranslated: it is supposed to mean "Black Angel" in Italian, but thanks to the problem the Japanese have with R's and L's, the letter got switched up: thus his name would, accurately, be Nero Angelo (for once the R is actually supposed to be there), which is what caused controversy all over when 4 was in the works.

The "R to L and vice-versa" problem occurs in the more usual fashion with Berial. As always, the name is (almost certainly) supposed to be "Belial", but the Japanese are apparently incapable of getting that right/the translation team never catches it.

The kicker of it all regarding Nelo Angelo? In the game's Japanese manual, it's spelled -- IN ENGLISH -- "Nero Angelo".

Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Angelo and Assault type of enemies in 4. Later Nero acquires Aegis Shield upgrade for your arm, which allows him to use enemies like that.

Malevolent Architecture: In 3, pretty much the entire tower of Temen-Ni-Gru, which was basically built to be as demonic as possible. But the most appropriate example is in one of the hallways. You thought those wall-saw-blades were annoying during fights when they were on the walls? Heh.

He still apparently has the money for Impossibly Cool Clothes, a set of very nice custom made guns, a castle-like office building, and (if you look at the scenery in his office) what appears to be several thousand dollars worth of music equipment.

Marathon Boss: Vergil at the end of 3 is this, at least the first time. If you don't deal him enough damage when his guard is open (which is not often), they will be nullified quickly since he heals when in Devil Trigger. Of course, he is even less open when his health is low. And that's in Normal mode; in Dante Must Die, let's just say he's an endless nightmare.

Naughty Tentacles: When the Soul Eaters (luminous tentacled Personal Space Invaders) go for Dante. They always attack from behind, giggling and screaming, and when they snatch him up to drain his DT it looks rather wrong.

Meaningful Name: Yamato and Rebellion, the keepsake swords of Vergil and Dante. The former is is a Japanese term referring to the people and traditional nationalistic spirit of Japan, and in the past to the nation itself. It fits with Vergil's aesthetic and commitment to tradition and power, while the latter is more representative of Dante's resistance to said commitment.

Many of the characters are named after The Divine Comedy. By the time you've reached 4 and they named one hero after a Roman emperor, however, it's fairly obvious they're just picking names they like. Nero Angelo is Italian for Black Angel so it is meaningful, since Nelo Angelo is Vergil, a half-demon. Dante and Vergil are obviously meaningful (in the Divine Comedy, Dante descends into hell with Vergil as his guide; the twins' lives are vaguely similar) and Mundus, which means "world", is rather fitting for the name of a being that can conjure up entire universes.

Earlier than 4. By the time you've reached 3 and realized the "foundation that brought out fear" shares its name with the Great Ziggurat of Ur, you know they're just picking names out of a hat. Or that Dante lives in Iraq. (Which, coincidentally enough, the city in 3, as seen from atop of the Temen-Ni-Gru, is surrounded by a vast, erm, desert...)

Trish is taken from Beatrice of the same poem.

Even Lady is taken from the poem. Lady as in Madonna (same thing in Italian), as another name for the Virgin Mary (as in Lady's real name).

Ditto with Lucia, a martyr who aided Dante on his quest, arguably mirroring Lucia's relationship to Dante in 2.

Nero's name was explained in the novel's afterword as just being something the author picked because they thought it was cool. In-story, he was named that after being found in a black blanket.

Plus Credo, Agnus, Sanctus, Kyrie, and Gloria from 4 are all named after the different parts of the Roman Catholic "Ordinary of the Mass".

Their naming actually makes a bit of sense. Nero was a Roman Emperor well known for persecution of Christians, and the Order, with whom he is in conflict with, are all named after elements of the church. Also, all of the aforementioned characters that use demonic power have names that are Latin words, as opposed to the odd man (well, woman) out, Kyrie, which is a Greek word.

Suffice to say, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Melee a Trois: Between Dante, Vergil and Lady in 3, until Arkham shows up and forces the Sons of Sparda to work together. Between the player characters, the Order of the Sword, and the demons in 4.

Monster Mash: Argosax the Chaos is the literal embodiment of this trope; he's a bizarre fusion of several bosses that you faced in 2 (Phantom, Furiataurus, Nefasturris, Jokatgulm, and Oranguerra), as well as Griffon from 1.

The Faults in 4 appear under your feet and, if you don't react fast enough, teleport you to an underground room full of Chimera Assaults, before forcing you to do the fight you were engaged in all over again. Thankfully it's easy to avoid.

Mook Horror Show: The fights against Dante in 4 go a long way towards showing how frightening Dante must look like to everyone standing against him.

More Dakka: Upgrading the gunslinger style in 3 lets you shoot faster in general, plus you can use Kalina Ann's mini Macross Missile Massacre. Also the Artemis has multi-target-lock.

The cutscene where Dante acquires Pandora in 4. First a minigun, then a triple-barrel rocket launcher, culminating in what is basically a floating, one-man munitions repository. Dante decides not to continue on to the next form after that.

Mundane Utility: Sometimes the items you acquire do basic things like, opening a door or dispel a barrier have a little over-dramatic description... for example, in 3 you get to use the Steel Soul (containing the brave soul of an immortal and invincible hero)..... to open ONE single door. And so on...

In Cerberus' case, it might make sense if you remember that in the Divina Commedia, Cerberus is the keeper of the Gluttony sinners, who are tormented by hailstorms. So... hail... ice... it might make sense.

Nerf: The Devil Trigger offers special abilities and attacks in 1 and 2; it is all but useless in 3.

Never Bring a Knife to A Fist Fight: Subverted: Vergil pulls out Yamato after he finds that using Beowulf alone isn't stopping Dante from kicking his ass. Beowulf and Ifrit may deal the most damage in gameplay, but Dante never uses them in cutscenes.

New Game+: Almost compulsory for the higher difficulty levels; in fact, one of the most difficult Self Imposed Challenges is to play Dante Must Die! mode without using this.

Nintendo Hard: The franchise is known for this -- in fact, one of the reasons people dislike the second game so much is that the game is a damn sight easier than it's predecessor.

Special note should be made of the initial Western release of DMC3, as the release saw the Easy mode removed and the other difficulties all down ranked in name to compensate; so Normal mode was actually the Hard mode from the Eastern release. When the Special Edition was released later, the difficulties were kept the same as the Japanese release.

Not the Fall That Kills You: Lady, in 3. Dante himself averts this trope; he jumps off a tower just to get to the bottom. In gameplay, there are a couple places where you can jump from obscenely high places and land normally.

Oedipus Complex: Subverted with Dante, who is never explicitly stated to be seeking to outdo his father, and is shown to be slightly disturbed by Trish's resemblance to his mother (specifically in the anime).

Would the introduction of the Alto Angelus in 4 count? Dude doesn't even stop walking to kill the two Assaults that rush him.

3: Dante's intro in bladed and ceiling fan flavors.

Vergil in 3, to the boss of Mission 2.

Ominous Latin Chanting: The BGM for the second and third Vergil fights in 3. There's even more of that on 4's soundtrack. It's also present quite a bit in 2, primarily in levels, cutscenes, and boss battles during the latter half of the game.

Once an Episode: Dante is impaled on his own sword at least once in every installment.

Breaking glass ceilings either by Dante or by some other reccuring character.

Our Souls Are Different: Done to a head-scratching degree in this series. In 3, the souls of defeated devils turn into Devil Arms/combat Styles for use by whoever gets them, but it's never known what exactly happens to a human soul once their bodies are destroyed. In 1, devils are pretty much referred to as having no souls at all to speak of, and the same is said about humans that "become devils" in 3 and 4. Anyone expecting 4 to be consistent with 3, though, is going to get very confused at Echidna, Bael, Dagon, and Berial not turning into Devil Arms after being beaten. Needless to say, 2 is out of the question.

Overshadowed by Awesome: Part of the problem with the second game, when compared to the first. The fact that it was mediocre and forgettable didn't help either, though.

Painful Transformation: Limited; Dante howls in pain during his first chronological Devil Trigger usage, but never does so again during subsequent uses.

During one of the later cutscenes, Temen-Ni-Gru starts moving, morphing Dante in and out of his Devil Trigger form repeatedly. He looks around, apparently more interested in falling dust and the tower's shaking than his own changing body.

Percussive Maintenance: Dante to his jukebox in 3, although he does leave a dent in it. Nero to a drawbridge control console in 4, albeit unintentionally as he was surprised that it actually worked, despite the console sparking and exploding after he shot at it.

Dante needs to operate a machine to open the cage containing the next plot coupon. The machine's key is actually an ornamental spear. So he stabs the machine with the spear and, when nothing happens, kicks it. It works.

Plot Induced Stupidity: Nero forgets that he has an extendable arm with which to save Kyrie. It happens twice.

Possibly justified, in that he is implied to have a very love-hate relationship with said arm, and that it's also implied to be a relatively new ability - under the stress of having his girlfriend taken away from him and being otherwise powerless to stop it, he may actually have forgotten about it.

Perma-Stubble: Dante's eternal five o'clock stubble in the fourth game.

Planet Heck: The first three games have near-endgame levels set in the demon world.

Also in 4, the costume is still the same as default but with infinite DT, magic for Dante and Exceed for Nero. Makes even the hardest settings modes (with the exception of "Heaven or Hell" and "Hell or Hell") nearly a breeze.

Reality Warper: Mundus is capable of creating sentient beings that are exact replicas of dead creatures, that even have the capacity for free will and the ability to betray him. And apparently that's not an effort for him at all. Unsurprising, seeing as he creates a new universe for the final battle of 1, purely for him and Dante to fight in!

Recurring Riff: Happens quite a few times from game-to-game. Bits of "Devils Never Cry", the main theme of 3, tend to work their way into music for battles or cutscenes involving Vergil in 3. "Dance With Devils", the intro of 2, has its octave changed to serve as "Evil Tower" (the theme of the battle with Nefasturris) while its guitar riff and Ominous Latin Chanting respectively are featured in "Shoot The Works" (Dante's second battle theme) and "Cry For The Moon" (Arius' boss theme). Dante's battle theme in 4 is a remix of "Lock & Load", his second battle theme in the original game.

Red Oni, Blue Oni: Dante & Vergil is the main example, although Dante and Nero could also count.

Dante/Nero is at least a partial inversion. Nero, wearing blue, is the one prone to emotional outbursts, though he is still pretty level headed. Dante, wearing red, is the mysterious and somewhat more stoic one, though he still keeps his brand of wacky. He spends a boss fight getting Nero to cool off. Dante arguably becomes more Red during his own section of the game, though not by much.

There's also the literal example of Agni and Rudra, two talkative demon swords wielded by headless demon bodies, one red and one blue, though they both seemed the same.

Red Right Hand: Devil Bringer, actually a Red-And-Blue-With-Blue-Glow Right Forearm.

In 4, Lady (who appeared in 3) works in the Devil May Cry business. But in 1, supposed to happen between 3 and 4, Dante clearly works alone and there is no mention of another partner besides Trish even at the end.

The Force Edge was originally a memento handed down to Dante by his father. The second game changed the sword to Rebellion and Force Edge was stuck in the underworld in the third game.

Trish remarks that Dante "lost a mother and brother to evil twenty years ago". The third game has Dante encounter his brother a decade or so after Eva's death, and Vergil's status as an antagonist is very questionable.

Kamiya's concept was that Vergil was kidnapped when Eva was killed, which explains why Dante didn't recognize Nelo Angelo: why would he connect an evil demon trying to kill him with a little kid who was never anything but a good boy? The memory the amulet triggered was one of his most recent of Vergil. The author of the first novel decided to ignore this and make teenage Vergil free, evil, and Badass, meaning that Dante should have had more recent not just memories but good memories of him since they were temporary partners. Then 3 decided to copy the first novel's Vergil and the second novel's plot.

Dante's speech to Trish in 1 implies that he and Vergil never actually knew Sparda, and all the twins had to go by were the stories Eva would tell them of him. Vergil apparently reminds Dante of Sparda, but the kindof guythatVergil is just makes that comparison mind-boggling.

Dante: My mother always used to tell me that my father was a man who fought for the weak. He had courage and a righteous heart.

The name "Devil May Cry" comes from Enzo Ferino's testimony in the handbook (in reference to Dante: "He glares at a guy, and even the devil may cry!") and later was changed to the Title Drop by Lady ("Even a devil may cry when he loses a loved one,").

And about the name, it was changed to "Devil Never Cry" at the end of 1 but went back to "Devil May Cry" in 4, which is supposed to happen after that…

In 1, Trish was the first to know about Dante's quest for revenge. In the manga for the third game, the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit (and by extension, Arkham) knew as well.

Rewarding Vandalism: Breaking background objects for orbs. Interesting, a very slight subversion in 4: In the first fight against Berial, the houses in the area yield health orbs after being destroyed--however, as the orbs will disappear later, it's probably best to ensure you don't lead him in the direction of all the houses and cause them to be all gone too quickly. So, don't jump to letting him smash everything.

Echidna more closely resembles her Greek counterpart, but what does that have to do with Gilgamesh?

The sad thing is, the character design for Beowulf is nearly perfect...for another demon entirely. Four wings? Check. Scorpion tail? Check. Claws and talons? Check. Lion-like face? Check. Beowulf, aside from his light powers, is a nearly perfect depiction of the demon Pazuzu.

Also, Geryon, in Greek mythology, was a hideous giant that looked like three men fused into one. In Dante'sInferno, he is a serpent-like creature with wings and a human face. There's never been a depiction of him as a horse.

Leviathan's Heart, from 3, is encased in a hard shell that opens up for a short time when one of two adjacent organs is destroyed and before it regenerates.

Nevan, also from 3, has an electrical shield that drops when all of the bats surrounding her are destroyed. And then you must instantly attack her at least once or else she'll immediately regenerate the shield to full.

During both fights against Sanctus in 4, he is protected by a force field that you must destroy to damage him.

Shields Are Useless: Averted by all the playable characters for the same reason that Armor Is Useless. Subverted by a whole mess of baddies, most of them more difficult enemies to defeat (Frosts, Fallen Ones, Assaults...)

Tell Me About My Father: Averted. Dante cares little about wanting to know about Sparda (to the point where Lady knows more of the legends than he does), and Nero has yet to know who his father is to even ask.

The Lady's Favour: Lady handing Kalina Ann to Dante with the request that he "free" her father is this minus, y'know, the whole love interest thing.

Theme Naming: The Seven Hells from 3, although the semblance is spotty at best. Also, five of the important characters draw their names from The Divine Comedy, and the Order of the Sword have a Christian hymn theme going.

Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Started in 3, continued in 4. Nero has a lesser version of this, but Dante (and Vergil while he was alive) can turn the spirits of defeated enemies into weapons. This is the implied origin of Ifrit and Alastor from 1, presumably thanks to Sparda.

Villain Ball: Sanctus grabs this one hard, and holds on for dear life. He has a decent enough plan: capture Dante to use him to power the Savior. So, he sends his second best man after Dante to capture him. So far so good. Then he goes and kidnaps Kyrie, turning two of his biggest assets against himself, for apparently no other reason than to be villainous. He's already said Dante was the best choice to power the savior, so why suddenly decide to piss Nero off to use him instead.

Arius from 2 has an amazingly hamtastic one that completely destroys any credibility he had as villain beforehand (which, mission-wise, was only four levels ago).

Arius (before Dante fights him, after he discovered that Dante set him up by switching the Medalgia with his coin): Wheeeooooooooo!Arius (post-defeat): Oooh...! No... My dream... my life... I was meant to be the KEEEEEEEEEEEEENG of the this world...!

Pretty much any action sequence in 3 could fit the bill. He kills demons with bullet-propelled billiard balls for Sparda's sake! And this is after he takes breaks in his fight to eat his pizza! And that's after Dante performs the most epic version of sitting down and answering a phone call.

What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Done to confusing levels throughout the series. Dante's "good" quality is his unwillingness to kill humans, even though it's been pointed out in the third game that humans have the potential to be horrifyingly evil and worse than even a demon could be, while demons have the potential to be kind and caring. Humans in general have an Informed Morality going on; their only redeeming value is the aforementioned kindness and caring. On screen, they're shown either being racist bigots even to the demons that value human life and haven't done them any wrong, or a demon has something to do with the humans' lack of good works; evil acts are Handwaved by it being a demon in disguise or they're actively seeking demonic power and being evil that way, making them fair-game for Dante to kill. On the rare occasion that they're just plain bastards with no demonic influence whatsoever, Dante doesn't touch them. Meanwhile, demons turn good specifically by wanting to 'become human' and gaining the good qualities of humanity and showing callous disregard for their own kind even though a human doing the reverse would probably be the highest level of bastardry ever. It's implied that Dante's only as good as he is because of being born half-human and siding with his 'human side' while Vergil was portrayed as evil for "siding with the demons"... even though he was trying to emulate his father who was the most triumphant example of Ascended Demon humanity had ever seen and is the reason they even exist. Again, the third game brings this up and points out the false dichotomy, but the series itself wants to dance back and forth with the Black and White Morality and can't seem to decide whether or not humans and demons are inherently moral or immoral.

Nero, in 4, has two as well. First one, in mission 7, is a variant in the latter example because Nero is just declaring his motivation aloud for the first time: he decided on it before the game started. The second one is given after he defeats Sanctus, telling him what he lacks, and how he's nothing like Sparda, but he, instead, is, because he has someone to love.

You Will Not Evade Me: Kalina Ann had such a move in Gunslinger style, but given the situational-ness of Gunslinger it didn't see much use. Nero's Devil Bringer has such a function against small enemies and is much more integral to his playstyle.

Youngest Child Wins: Dante against Vergil. Yes, they are twins, but conversations and in-game information seems to indicate Dante is the younger twin.

You Remind Me of X: In the first game, Dante reminds every boss he faces of Sparda. And in the third, he reminds Nevan of Sparda.

Normally, the player would automatically assume it's Sparda when Berial notes that Nero reminds him of someone in 4, but according to the novel it's Dante.

Berial: As... as I suspected, that is demonic po-!Nero: I'm not a demon. I'm a human. Don't lump me in with you.Berial: I see... Neither demon, nor human... So that's the case. You, too, are the same as him...Nero: Him? Who are you talking about?

Your Head Asplode: Happens to Cerberus in 3 whenever you damage one of the heads enough.